In our old house I had removed the flow constrictors from most of the showers and the sink in the kitchen. Probably illegal in some places, but surely not in Texas. At the new house here in New Mexico the shower needed a little extra oomph. Rather than be a scofflaw and modify the existing shower head (there may be laws here) I just bought a nice old fashioned Speakman 2.5 GPM shower head. Weighs a ton, unlike the little plastic toy I was replacing. Made all the difference. I’m not even sure I use more water since I’m in and out of the shower in no time now.

It seems the bathtub also had a flow reducer. Not certain what the thinking is here. Maybe just hoping you will give up and take a bath with and inch or two of (now cold) water instead of waiting for the tub to fill. I removed the reducer and the results were spectacular. Except the water was now grey and the bottom of the tub filled with grit.

I suppose my water line needed flushing even though this is a somewhat new house. My water heater stopped making that death rattle noise though. Surely a good thing. But our recirculation pump was making very bad noises. I got the name of a plumber from a neighbor.

After a few bathtubs full. The water is clean again. I suppose I flushed the water line for the whole neighborhood. The pump noise also settled down. All is well. I’m done with plumbing for a while.

The current administration has published its National Security Strategy. It’s a retreat from the world stage, basically America’s Brexit.

TL;DR: the US is no longer interested in Asia or Europe (and presumably Africa too). The US will concentrate on the Western Hemisphere. The Atlantic Magazine has a slightly different take.

Trump’s Security Strategy Is Incoherent Babble

As China moves forward with EVs, the rest of the world finds themselves in battle for second place with legacy ICE cars. Good luck with this Detroit (and Stuttgart and Wolfsburg).

China floods the world with gasoline cars it can’t sell at home

Was thinking about the Japanese Fifth Generation Computer Systems project of the 1980s. It was a very large project aimed at producing an AI Supercomputer. It is all but forgotten today. It did shake up the US computer industry, which feared the Japanese would do to the computer market what they had done to the automobile market in the 1970s (produce a better, cheaper product). MCC in Austin was formed as a direct reaction to the Japanese FGSC.

Has anyone questioned Kristy Noem about this?

Rio Rancho dog shot 5 times during daily walk, suspect at large

I am a big fan of the writer Denis Johnson. His novella Train Dreams has been made into a movie. While I haven’t seen the movie yet (I have read the book) it comes highly recommended. A good review from Slash Film.

Train Dreams Review: One Of 2025’s Best Films Needs To Break Free Of The Netflix Algorithm

Often called Balcony Solar, small scale (1kW) systems can make a real difference to individuals and to energy grids. From Clean Technica.

The People’s Solar: How Plug-In Solar Could Bring Affordable Energy To 60 Million Americans

I woke up this morning with the name Ed de Castro in my head. Edson de Castro was the founder of late 1970s minicomputer company Data General. It was in the Boston area, where I did my undergrad in the early 1980s, so it was a familiar corporate name. I believe Ed de Castro even gave a large donation to my school when I was there. Years later, I learned my lab tech was a Data General employee and stayed in touch with Ed de Castro. But I didn’t really have any personal connection to him.

De Castro and Data General are mostly remembered for being the subject of Tracy Kidders Pulitzer Prize winning book The Soul of a New Machine. It documented the strange new world of tech start-ups, where vast new fortunes were being created and the world was being changed. We all read Soul of a New Machine as undergrads.

I googled Ed deCastro this morning and saw that he died recently. I didn’t see any mention of his passing.

But I did run across the short memoir from and early Data General employee, the former head of software and founder of Stratus Technologies. Not much was really written about the reality of these early rocket ride companies. I really enjoyed this bit of history.

Data General: The Fair Bastards

Was taking the trash out and noticed a faint red glow in the sky. Once my eyes adjusted to the dark, it was definitely a glow. Noticed some green on the side. It went away but came back around 10pm when I took a few photos.